Stiches
by Princess Kindle Rose
Summary: Inuyasha got hurt and has to be human and get stiches


"GAH," Inuyasha hissed, pulling away from Kagome abruptly. "I hate that an-tee-skeptic thing!" He crawled away from the wench when she advanced once more with the cotton swab drenched in antiseptic. "STAY. AWAY!" He howled.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called, impatiently. "You know I wouldn't be doing this if you were still hanyou. But you aren't. So, get over here!" Her command was ferocious, but Inuyasha wasn't about to budge. His raven hair was framing his face, and blood continued to gush out of his upper arm. He had gotten torn up pretty bad by a ferocious tiger demon. He had managed to run away with Kagome before the sun fully disappeared behind the horizon, succumbing to a moonless night.

The night of the new moon…

"NO!" He yelled.

"I SAID COME HERE!"

"I SAID NO!"

"I SAID YES!"

"WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO, SUBDUE ME?"

Kagome snarled. "No! I'll let your ass bleed to death. So, unless you wanna die a slow and painful demise with me standing right at that corner, pointing and laughing, I suggest you crawl right back over here and take the antiseptic like a man. Or," She grinned, "you aren't as much of a man as you lead yourself to be?"

That got him.

Hit to the ego.

Dejectedly, he crawled back, wincing when he put too much pressure on his right arm. Damn wench, he thought, insulting my manhood. Keh! Sitting with his legs crossed, he leaned against the tree that they were hiding behind. They managed to lose the tiger demon before Inuyasha pulsed into his human form. Gently, Kagome dabbed his wound and he hissed in pain, but remained seated. Her eyes softened.

Oh, Inuyasha… She thought as she tried to, as gently as possible, rub the dried crusts of blood off of his arm. If she didn't treat the wound on time, then he would probably die before the sun rose. And she couldn't let that happen to Inuyasha.

She wouldn't.

"WEENNNNCHH!" he roared, yanking away again. Kagome squeaked.

"Sorry!" She apologised. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Inuyasha had his left hand clutching the ground and his right hand rigid in pain. Kagome leaned forward slightly, her eyes reflecting the worry that she internally felt. If she didn't clean the wound and sew it up, Inuyasha would surly lose his arm—

Or worse.

Die!

"Ugh," he groaned, "it fucking hurts, Kagome." He admitted. Her heart thudded against her chest—he never told her anything hurt. But right now he was human so… his emotions were getting the best of him, right? Kagome sure hoped so. Her fear was rising but she refused to let him see how scared she was. He needed her right now, and for all the times he had been there for her, she would be there for him.

"Inuyasha," she whispered, "we have to clean it and bandage it. Otherwise…" she gulped as her silent finished her statement for her. He glanced at her before quickly looking away.

"Keh," he scoffed, "I'll live."

"But you might not!" She cried, balls of tears forming behind her eyes. "You're not as strong right now, as you usually are. You don't know what'll happen!"

Inuyasha was silent for a moment. He knew she was right. He knew that if he didn't let her do what she wanted to do; then he might die before it was even midnight. He wasn't used to somebody pouring over him, caring for him, until he met Kagome. She would risk anything to help him, to help treat his wounds. Even when she knew that he healed a lot faster than humans, she still wanted to treat him when he was half demon.

It wasn't the fact that he was hurt, it was the principle. She wanted to show that she cared about him…

Him.

Inuyasha.

The half demon.

"Fine." He gave in. "Just… just don't let it hurt."

Kagome smiled sadly, knowing that something like not letting it hurt was going to prove to be very difficult. Inhaling deeply, she grabbed a new handful of cotton swabs and drenched it in antiseptic. Gently, she pressed it against his wound and heard him hiss in pain once more. She tugged his haori higher, so she could reach the farthest limits of his wound, but it wasn't helping. Sitting back down, she looked gently up at him.

"You… you need to take your haori off."

He froze and slowly turned to look at her. His deep amethyst bore into her own. "Come again?"

Kagome bit her lower lip. "Take your haori off?"

"Might as well take my hakama off too, eh?"

Kagome blanked. "… you just cracked a joke!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Keh," and shrugged his haori off with much discomfort. Kagome drank in the depth of his wound and her heart began pounding harder. That coupled with his chiselled chest glistening underneath the twinkling stars made her heart go into overdrive.

Trying to calm her nerves, she began to treat him once again. She saw the tightening of his muscles, the simple ripple of his sinew, the involuntary twitches his body made. Trying to take her attention away from his chest, she stared intently at his arm.

He took such a bad beating, she thought sadly. I wish… I could always be there for him. She saw the firm set in his jaw and knew that he was trying to endure the pain. She could only imagine how much it would be hurting him right now: a huge gash in his upper arm, extensive loss of blood. The only thing she could think of was getting his mind off of the entire thing. As she continued to clean the wound, she also began speaking.

"When I was younger," she began. Immediately, Inuyasha's head snapped to her direction and his eyes were wide. If there was anything about Kagome he knew, it was that he didn't know about her childhood. She was just as mysterious as him in that sense- she kept quiet about her past.

"My father and I would always go to little festivals that our town would have," her eyes focused solely on his arm but she seemed to be in another world entirely. "It was just me and him. Souta was way too young… he," she gulped, "father bought me something every year. I still have them: a hair clip, a poster of a gold fish, a bug net… there are ten years of stuff from festivals that daddy and I used to go to."

Inuyasha had forgotten about the stinging sensation that constantly jolted throughout his arm. His eyes were soft and trained only Kagome, who was only focusing on his arm.

"He left for work that morning," she whispered, tears beginning to spill from her eyes. "And… we were in an argument. I told him I never wanted to see him again and…"

Inuyasha gulped.

"I didn't."

His eyes were trained onto her working figure. She seemed distant; as if she weren't there with him anymore, but she was. Expertly, she finished cleaning the wound and grabbed another bunch of cotton swabs to give it another quick wipe over. The pain was beginning numbingly familiar, and Inuyasha didn't know if that was good or bad.

"He was in a car accident," she continued. "Right in the middle of an intersection. A truck—one of those bigger cars—" She clarified for Inuyasha, "hit him as he passed through. That was it. Dead on the spot. And I never got to say that I was so-sorry…" She sniffled the last part, trying to contain her pain. "Nobody knows this story. But… you're my best friend so, I guess I had to tell you someday, hmm?"

His eyes were soft, not reflecting the pain that he was feeling. "Kagome," he murmured. Tearing away from his gaze, Kagome moved to her backpack. It was one of those nights she wished Sango and Miroku were with them, but alas, due to unforeseen circumstances, Sango became pregnant with Miroku's child and they were settled down in Kaede's village. Naraku had been destroyed a while ago, and Inuyasha and Kagome continued scouring through the continent to find the remaining shards of the Shikon no Tama.

Fishing through her endless pit of amenities, Kagome finally found gauze, medicinal twine, and a sterilized needle that was still in the package. They were things that Hojo had given her at some point and she had precariously at the time, thrown it into her backpack.

She didn't know that it'd come in handy. Ever.

"What're you doing?" He whispered, his heart racing. He was always in awe of what his companion was capable of. Throughout their years, she had helped them on so many occasions (other than spotting the aura of a shikon shard), and he was indebted to her. Not that she would find out, of course. And, as much as he didn't want to verbally admit it, he had fallen deeply in love with her.

Irreversibly in love. What he felt for Kagome he had never felt for Kikyo. With Kagome, he felt a companionship; a form of commitment that wasn't easily forged between two people. She cared about him, and constantly tried to show to the world that he wasn't what they perceived him to be: a filthy half-demon. She poured her heart out to him, on various occasions, and today had been the ultimate limit in which she could've gone.

Revealing her father's history. Something he had never known about.

His family history, although he never wanted to discuss it, had been easily found out throughout their journey. But Kagome?

God, I love her… The thought was painful to him, primarily because he knew that she would never be with him. Never pick him…

"Inuyasha," she whispered softly, "this is gonna hurt. A lot… I'm sorry in advance, okay?"

Dumbly, he nodded and braced himself. Gently, she laid a hand on his shoulder and straightened out her body. Trailing her fingers down, she pressed the tender muscles around the open wound and he hissed, loudly. Looking at him quickly, she pulled her hands away. "Did it hurt too much?"

With an obvious pained expression on his face, he shook his head. "No," he croaked. Tears of pain were gathering behind his lids, but he refused to let them fall. He was a man, not a weakling. "Just. Do what you're doing." He croaked out. Kagome's own tears filled behind her lids and spilled endlessly.

That took Inuyasha off guard. "What the—"

"I'm sorry," she sniffed, "if I hadn't been so stupid and went to take a bath when you clearly told me not to, you wouldn't be in so much pain."

He studied her, long and hard, before looking away. "Keh," he shot, "that's my job, wench. I protect you, no matter what."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled again, "if there's any way I can make it up to you…"

"Make sure I live until sunrise," he immediately responded, which caught Kagome ultimately off guard. Nodding quickly, she got back up again. Although it was dark, she was able to see perfectly clearly with the limited light the stars provided. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she knew that, however she did the job, anything to close his wound was better than nothing. Having a new sense of courage, Kagome immediately began doing what she originally intended to do: sew up Inuyasha's wound.

He swallowed the groans of pain that were threatening to come out. He didn't even want to look over and see what she was doing—all he felt was his skin pulling together, forcibly being put into a state where they could heal. She was sewing him shut… he couldn't help but feel the shock that coursed through his body.

"Where did—" He couldn't get the rest of his question out as pain rocked his body once more. Kagome looked at him for a split second before looking back at the work at hand.

"Where did I learn to sew… people?"

He nodded, not being able to speak. The pain…

"Kaede once showed me," she murmured, "you had… gone to see Kikyo," her voice cracked when she said that and it didn't go unnoticed by Inuyasha. "You were gone for a few days and a couple of the men in the village were attacked. Shippo and Miroku killed the demon, and I had to help Kaede sew flesh wounds."

He didn't know what to say. So much about her he didn't know…

Yet he knew more about her than anybody else in the world.

He closed his eyes and clenched his left arm, letting out an involuntary cry of pain. Kagome tried to quickly finish what she was doing. Finally, she did the best she could do and wrapped the wound with gauze and handed him some pain killers. Taking two pills, he leaned his head against the tree, and breathed heavily.

His arm killed.

Bunching up his haori and placing it on her lap, she nudged Inuyasha, ushering him to lie down. He was in too much pain to argue, so he did as she told and was immediately enveloped in the strong scent of Kagome. The feeling was surreal; he never thought he would be allowed to do something like that, ever again. Not since he was poisoned by the Spider Head.

Closing his eyes, Inuyasha was consumed by fatigue and ultimate pain. Kagome had, before they had gotten comfortable, placed enchanted sutras (which were stabbed into the ground by her purity arrows) around them. It was to keep evil out, temporarily. Hopefully it held until sunrise.

Her fingers were running through his hair, massaging his scalp. Inuyasha was in heaven; nothing had ever felt so good before. Ever. Her fingers rubbed circles, undoing the tenseness, sending a ripple of pleasure to pulse through his body. He was beginning to get extremely tired- Kagome did say something about the pain killers making him feel sleepy.

"K'gome," he croaked and she stopped her ministrations.

"Yes, Inuyasha?" Her voice was frantic. "Does it hurt too much?"

He shook his head, his eyes still closed. "No. You smell kinda good…"

Déjà vu. She was sent back to years ago when she first met Inuyasha. When he was poisoned the first night she and Shippo found out that he was a human on the night of the new moon. Smiled in nostalgia, she went back to running her fingers through his hair.

"You told me you hated how I smelt," she whispered, repeating what she had said that day, so long ago. She felt him smile in her lap.

"I know," he croaked, "I lied."

Her fingers rubbed into his scalp again, running through his mane at random. His breathing was becoming even, signalling that he was succumbing to sleep. She brought her face forward and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Inuyasha?" She whispered.

"Hmm?"

"What would you do if I was poisoned… and almost died?"

His left had come up to grip her shirt, as tightly as it was possible for him. "I'd cry for you," he admitted. Kagome pressed her lips to his cheek again and trailed her lips to his ear.

"Are you falling asleep?"

"Hmm…" his voice was trailing away.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Hmm…"

Kagome's hot breath felt amazing against his cheek; against his ear. "I… love you…"

By then, Inuyasha had already fallen asleep.


End file.
